Yesterday was our 1 year anniversary. We forgot to do the things that we wanted to make a tradition like: watch our wedding video… read our vows again, etc. Instead we stayed in bed till 4pm, got ready - took some pics on the beach and went on a dinner cruise up the Halifax river. It was the perfect first year anniversary!

Here are a couple of photos we took for Zoie @ 30 weeks and a couple we took on the cruise.

This has been a fun journey full of parties… and we are so glad they are over! I didn’t realize that weddings lasted months, but I wouldn’t have changed anything for the world. Thank you to all our friends and family for all the hard work and hard play they have put into our wedding - and thank you for all the cool gifts! Thanks to many Grady is putting in a shower right now for me - yippee! we finally get a shower in our room. I cant wait until this is done. The nice big jacuzzi tub is great, but a shower is going to top it off.

Our open houses were great - Sorry we only got picts on the one from Kanab… I forgot my camera and moms battery was dead for the last one in Cedar. It was a lot of fun to see old friends and even taking the time to hang out with some of our close friends. We really enjoyed both weekends of open houses.

Now that wedding stuff is done we will be focusing on our new business with Exfuze (going great!). We plan on traveling around a bit helping some of our friends across the country get started on their businesses so this should be fun. Gina’s baby is due in a few weeks and we have a friend from Israel coming to stay with us as well in the next month. Life never seems to slow down… We hope to squeeze in some dating time as well.

This blog was fun to create for the wedding and so was the website - i do plan on keeping the site up and as we go through life I will continue to blog and post updates of life so keep in touch with us as well!

Yes… finally i got the video off the video camera and on my computer. The quality is not the best but the size is still huge so i might mess with it more. Having a video camera is completely new to us so i am sure i will be learning, fussing, fiddling and everything else until i get things figured out how i want them… so keep looking for ‘video updates’ as we continue to blog (yes we will continue to use the blog after wedding things are done). Meanwhile for all of you who missed the ceremony - we look forward to seeing you at the open houses or other times, but please enjoy the video and enjoy our moment with us by watching our video. It is defiantly full of laughter, tears and love. Here you go….

We have set the dates for our Receptions / Open Houses (not sure what to call them!). Please email us your mailing address if you want an invite mailed to you. If not and you are reading this please consider this an ‘official invite’!

We are going to have one open house in Cedar and one in Kanab. We have decided not to organize anything for Vegas at this time so if you want to get out of the heat and you can drive up (crash at our place if you want… could be fun!) or even make a trip to Zion if you have never been there its worth it and now is a good time of year.  Otherwise if you cant make it up and want to get together just email us and lets plan something.
Our open house in Kanab is going to be September 27th at Grandpa and Grandma Stirlands house from 3pm - 6pm.  For link to a map and more information please see event details.

Our open house in Cedar City is going to be October 4th at Lin & Debbies house from 3pm - 6pm.  For link to a map and more information please see event details.

Hope to see you all there - we are looking forward to enjoying a great afternoon and evening with our family and friends!  Call or email us if you have any other questions.

Our wedding was perfect, everything was amazing. Our friends and family were a huge support of helping hands to make everything come together. I will be working on photos - between our personal cameras I have over 900 photos. I will go through and post some of the great ones up on our gallery. Also we are getting a CD from our professional photographer and will be putting those up. Meanwhile our photographer has put up about 250 of her favorites on a site where you can view and order prints. You can click here to visit her site. Thank you all for being a part of our special day…. as i said before it was perfect because of you.

Grady and Katie Wedding Ceremony

August 9, 2008

Wedding Prayer

Today the 2 of you will promise to dedicate yourselves completely to each other, with body, speech, and mind.
In this life, in every situation, in wealth or poverty, in health or sickness, in happiness or difficulty, you will work to help each other.
The purpose of your relationship will be to attain enlightenment by perfecting your kindness and compassion toward all beings.

Vows

Graydon and Katie are happy today not only because they can share the joy of their love for each other with friends and family, but also because they have the opportunity to express their aspirations for the future.

Do you, Graydon and Katie, pledge to help each other in developing your hearts and minds, cultivating compassion, generosity, ethics, patience, enthusiasm, concentration and wisdom, as you age and undergo the various ups and downs of life, and to transform them into the path of love, compassion, joy and equanimity? “We Do”

Do you pledge to support each other’s journey, to continually shine light on each other’s virtue, and support individual intuitions, even when it doesn’t directly benefit yourself? Do you pledge to reinforce and complement each other’s virtue? “We Do”

Understanding, that just as we are a mystery to ourselves, each person is also a mystery to us. Do you pledge to seek to understand yourselves, each other, and all living beings, to examine your own minds continually and to regard all the mysteries of life with openness and joy? “We Do”

Recognizing that the external conditions in life will not always be smooth and that internally, your own minds and emotions will sometimes get challenged by negativity; do you pledge to see all these circumstances as a challenge to help you grow, to open your hearts, to accept yourselves, and each other? Do you pledge to avoid becoming narrow, closed or opinionated, and to help each other to see various sides of situations? “We Do”

Do you pledge day to day, to be patient with yourselves and others, knowing that change comes slowly and gradually, and to seek inspiration from your teachers not to become discouraged? “We Do”

Do you pledge to preserve and enrich your affection for each other, and to share it with all beings? To take the loving feelings you have for one another and your vision of each other’s potential and inner beauty as an example, and rather than spiraling inwards and becoming self absorbed, to radiate this love outwards to all beings? Do you pledge to expand your family to include all living beings? “We Do”

Exchanging of Rings

At this time I ask that you place the marriage rings in my hand.

“The wedding ring is the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual bond which unites two loyal hearts in partnership.” May the lord bless these rings which you give as your sign of love and devotion.

Graydon, as you place Katie’s ring on her finger I ask that you repeat these words: “With this ring I thee Wed”

Katie as you place Graydon’s ring on his finger I ask that you repeat these words: “With this ring I thee Wed”

Pronouncement

“By the power vested in me through the wishes of Katie and Graydon, as well as the blessing of the lineage of their Spiritual Friends, I now pronounce you Husband and Wife. You may kiss the bride.”

Presenting and Congratulating the Couple

“Ladies and Gentlemen please join me in congratulating Mr. and Mrs. Meeks.”

Grady, the girls and me have been at the ranch now a week and getting everything prepared. We are enjoying our selves, relaxing and being productive all at one time. I think time is flying by and i cant believe a week is already passed. The big day is coming so quick and we have so many activities to do before. After today our days are full from morning till evening with final touches. Graydon’s parents came in last night and it is great to have them here to enjoy a week before with us. Dad, Rick and Rod are on their way today and should be here tomorrow along with my girlfriend Jen. The rest of the crew will be flowing in late Wednesday up until the Ceremony on Saturday. Toni tried on her dress this morning and it is beautiful - Tanya is in the bus doing final touches of sewing to help make it all perfect. We have had some major water issues, and actually ran out of water the second day we were here. We saw papa relax and all happy when my uncles showed up and by the end of the day the boys had it all fixed. The water is probably one of the largest obstacles out here. Jack made some amazing outdoor showers that are just ‘fun’ to take a shower in. He also bought us 52 cases about 1,300 bottles) of bottled water as a wedding present with our own personalized labels that are really cool. The rest of everything is just daily doings… Gina making me all girlie, final plans and more. Dad plan on a daddy daughter horse ride before the wedding and i cant wait for that. The spa day on Friday is filling up and is going to be a great time. Graydon and i plan to go to town by ourselves tomorrow to spend the day together and write our vows (i guess we should get on that….). The rest is just falling into place and we are getting excited.

I am taking every day at a time and trying to enjoy every minute of it. I am soaking these moments up and loving it. I have also been trying to add photos to our pre-wedding photo albumn almost every day for all of you that want to see what we are up to.

Just wanted to post a last update until we get to the ranch so everyone knows our schedule and what is going on. We leave Friday morning (tomorrow) for Vegas and will be there throughout the weekend. Monday we will be driving to the Ranch and will be there late Monday night.

Graydon and I are taking a break from work - no phones, no computer while we are at the ranch! we may log on and post some pictures and updates, but no work! This means we WONT BE CHECKING OUR EMAIL. If you need to reach us call the Ranch: 707-786-9078 - it will be the ONLY way to get ahold of us.

Everyone please please travel safe - have fun, enjoy traveling and getting out here and DON’T STRESS! This event is going to be a great experience for all involved, we plan on a lot of fun and a lot of laughter! Take your time getting here, don’t get in a rush or in a hurry. Please be careful driving up the ‘Wild Cat’ (the road to the ranch leaving Ferndale). Just drive it slow and watch for traffic. Call for anything you need, we will be making many trips to town for wedding arrangements and airport pickups so if you need anything don’t hesitate to call! We love you all and are way excited to see everyone and get to spend the time we are going to get with you. Come prepared for a party, camping and just a lot of layed back fun!

Oh ya… for all of you not planning on coming there is still time for last minute decisions! We would love to have you, and if not - we will miss you tons!

We are getting ready to leave for the Ranch - time has just flew by!  We leave for Vegas on Friday and for the Ranch on Monday. Everything is coming together great. Alexis got to try on her dress last night (i took pictures… see below).  The bridesmaids dresses look so beautiful. Alexis is the only one with sleeves and since that is the only picture i have i photoshop’d out her and the sleeves to see what the other ones will look like.

My dress is amazing - drop dead gorgeous and so unique… mom has done an amazing job. I tried it on today and got some things fitted and its just ‘wow’. Its perfect in every way. I think it almost made dad cry seeing it on!  I cant wait to wear it, i wonder if i could wear it every day

This weekend i made Daisie’s Dress - Its perfect for her and fits her well, and it has my touch (the bad sewing job!) but it looks cute and Chicago has his Tux all ready to go and has tried it on many times to show it off!

I have been working on making our ‘wish book’. We have decided instead of a guest book we are going to have a wish book where everyone not only signs their names but writes a wish or comment for us to read later in the book. I have made it from my dress material and added some fun things. It has turned out beautiful and i love it and cant wait for everyone to sign it.

The cake… all i can say is ‘WOW’ Mom has out-done her self on this. It is amazing!  For those of you that dont know we ended up with a very funky cake and the ingredients (i dont suggest that you eat it), as it is made of Styrofoam and ceramics.  Mom fired the middle corset piece and is starting to paint it today and it is just amazing. It is actually turning out very similar to the picture i have below on the blog (except even better!).  I cant wait to see it all come together, its really unique and perfect in every way too.

We have last minute things to do… like write our vows! Grady says we will take a night at the ranch and go to the beach by ourselves and sit and write them (i think that sounds romantic and perfect too!).

It sounds like most everyone is finalizing their travel plans and we are going to have a great turn out with a lot of fun and cant wait to see everyone and spend these amazing couple of weeks out on the ranch with Grammy and Papa.  A big day is ahead and we are getting excited.

Also i am sure i will post this again - but the ranch does not have any cell service!  Any questions or if you need anything call the house phone: 707-786-9078.

Hi Girls! I ordered your shoes today - kind of casual yet i found a heal with flat bottom for walking on the ranch. these should work great! We are getting so excited and the dresses are coming along. I of course got the shoes below in Chocolate.